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Chapter 42
🕑 Added 2024-04-04 08:42:13 +0000 UTCThe late afternoon sun cast a golden glow on everything that made the scenes outside the carriage truly something worth to be seen. At this moment, Anton almost expected Robin Hood to come out and ask them to join their band of merry men or for the unicorn from the animated film The Last Unicorn to suddenly appear accusing them of not seeing her for what she was, a unicorn instead they were seeing her as a regular horse and Anna insisting that we capture her for her very own pet. He suddenly took his lute from his inventory and played the theme song of the movie The Last Unicorn by the band America.
It was a magical film that opened his eyes as a young child to the magical world of fantasy because after seeing that movie, he looked for films, books, and animations that had similar themes. That led him to his favorite authors like David Eddings, Rober Jordan, L.E. Modesitt Jr, Barbara Hambly, Mercedes Lackey, and more. He was thankful that their local library had a huge fantasy books collection and he was told by the librarian that it was donated by a deceased fantasy fanatic who gave a huge sum of money to the library with the condition that they would take care of his beloved fantasy books. He had always included that unknown man in his prayers.
After Anton sang the song Anna commented.
“That is such a poignant song brother. Is there a story behind the last unicorn in your song?”
“Yes. It was about a unicorn in a forest somewhere and she found out that she was the last since the other unicorn was hounded by a lonely old king that was using a magical red bull to gather all the unicorns in the world to drive them into the sea beside his castle so he can look at their beauty and marvel. The unicorn decided to search for the others not knowing their fate and she encountered a traveling circus that was led by a witch and then the witch captured her. She was then freed by a sorcerer’s apprentice who knows little magic and the other animals in the circus were freed. The witch was killed by a mythical harpy that she had also captured and the sorcerer and the unicorn ran.”
Anton stopped and put his lute in his inventory.
“Brother please continue. I want to know what happened to the unicorn.”
“The unicorn and the sorcerer encountered a band of thieves but the thieves followed an illusion that was accidentally cast by the sorcerer and the only people left in their party were the unicorn, the sorcerer, and a woman thief who was also the thieves’ cook. Suddenly the magical red bull by the king encountered them and to prevent the unicorn from being captured, the sorcerer cast a spell that turned the unicorn into a human girl. The unicorn was devastated. Since as you know the unicorns are immortal but being transformed as a human girl she could feel herself slowly dying.” He continued.
Anton could see that his sister was riveted by the story and even his father was listening from the opening in the front of the carriage. He then continued with the story telling how they arrived at the castle of the king who captured the other unicorns. The king didn’t suspect her since she looked like a human girl and the prince fell in love with her. In the last part of the story, the unicorn turned back into a unicorn and fought off the magical red bull using her magical horn, and the other unicorns were freed but then she did not know what to do next since she experienced being mortal, she now knew what regret was but even then time would heal her since she was back to being an immortal.
“That was such a lovely story brother. Can you sing the song again?”
Anton acquiesced with her sister’s request and played and sang The Last Unicorn Again.
When dusk arrived Anton’s family set up a camp beside the road. When everything was set up, since it was still bright he recommended to his father to practice using the wand of magic missile to hunt some animals in the forest so he would learn how to use the wand well.
“You’re right son. How could I use an equipment effectively if I don’t have the experience? Since you will be able to recharge it, I will follow your suggestion.”
Anders then went into the forest holding the wand.
“I want to use it too,” Anna muttered.
“Maybe Father will allow you to once he is done enjoying it and once we reached a city and earned a lot of gold coins maybe we could buy another magical wand.”
Anton fed the horses and watered them using the water that he conjured from his spell Glacial Spike then he brushed their coat while the Prayer Aura was active. He could see that the horses were starting to greatly favor him being affectionate and all. He also liked Maide and Bailey and knew that he would not be able to part with them.
After a while, Anders came back dragging a huge boar.
“The wand is very useful! Just three hits and the boar died. I’m going to dress this boar and you put it with the others.”
Anders dressed the boar in no time and Anton kept it together with the others in his private stash. They then ate their dinner while listening to the sound of the sputtering fire. While they were eating, Anton activated the Prayer Aura to make sure that his family would remain healthy and the spell also relaxes them and makes their sleep truly restful.
“It’s still early son. Can you play a song for us?”
Anton played and sang several songs mainly pop and country songs. He made sure to select those songs without any form of technology in the lyrics that could be misunderstood. After he sang three songs, he stopped for a bit to rest.
“The songs you sing are mainly love songs. Why is that?” Anna asked.
‘Those are the only songs I know. I know that most bards and minstrels have a wide variety of songs that tell different stories but unfortunately, I’m not really a bard or a minstrel.”
“That’s okay brother, your songs are beautiful and you do know other songs. The one that you sang earlier, The Last Unicorn was not a love song and that other one as well about a man who missed his country, that’s not a love song.”
“You’re right Anna. You’re so smart!”
“I know I am that’s why I’m sure I can also be a wizard so you and Father would have to find me a teacher once we reach a city.”
Anders and Anton laughed and promised her that they would find her a magic teacher. Anders then asked his children to rest so they could leave early the next day.
